Dance of the Luna
by Xardion
Summary: A graceful, flawless dance... The moon beamed down on her, causing her to literally glow as she danced around. She didn't have the same pure aura as her sister, but that made her more real to him, more alive, more... Sequel to Comfort Seating. Please R


Disclaimer: See previous chapters

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_**Dance of the Luna**_

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"Hraaaahhh!"

With a powerful roundhouse kick, Masataka finished his training for the day. Or for the evening, he should say. Since notice of their entry into the tournament, the entire Juken club had been pushing their training to the max. Aya and Nagi, who had been training with Masataka's father Dogen as well as Nagi's mother Makiko, returned only yesterday today with their training there complete. Bob had remained at the dojo to be trained by Maya and Masataka (mostly sparring on Masataka's part).

When not training with Bob, Masataka would train on his own in the dojo by himself. The solace allowed him to freely push himself without distraction. Of course, he paid heed to Maya's earlier warning about not pushing himself too hard. The last time he did, he slept right through the night, waking up in the morning with Maya right there to scold him. Since then, he followed a still-hard, but more regulated training schedule. Three to five times a day, two to three hours each. With Bob sparring with him, he could even see how to flesh out his techniques more.

"Souichiro-sama! Wait for me!"

Masataka gave a low snort as Nagi rushed into the dojo, with Aya hot on his heels. Masataka took a moment to look at Aya. The first time he had seen her, he was completely enamored by her. And it was more than just her physical beauty, although he would be the first to admit that that play a major part in her attraction. Her busty form and figure was more than enough to catch any man's eyes. But there was more to her than that. She seemed to have an aura of purity and innocence around her. Even though the incident with the Reiki had revealed a darker side to her nature, she still retained that aura of light. But as it stood, she only had eyes for the one guy who tried to avoid her.

_'Idiot...'_

His thoughts annoying him, Masataka decided to call it a day and leave. He was certain neither of the two would notice and he was right, as he left with the sounds of Nagi trying to get her away from him. The departing fighter shook his head, still in disbelief that someone, anyone would not take the chance to be closer to a girl like that. If he was Nagi... At this Masataka stopped himself. He wasn't Nagi. He was himself. Those were the facts.

He just had to get over it...and her...

He continued walking, deciding to just head home and rest up for another day of school and training. With a calm sigh, his eye lifted up to the sky. It was well onto night with scarcely a cloud in the sky. Along with the stars to give their usual twinkle in the night, the moon was in full bloom, illuminating everything around it. It was a beautiful night to say the least, allowing him to feel at peace.

This strangely enough brought Maya into his mind...

He found it a bit weird that she would come up now, but not so much. What was interesting was that both Natsume sisters were the reason for his increase in training. With Aya, the reason was to put her out of his mind, to get over the fact that she mostly ignored him in pursuit of Nagi (whom he had beaten the unholy hell out of at the start of all of this). When he trained, thoughts of his romance or lack of it, or anything else for that matter, were absent from his mind, leaving only the training itself.

With Maya, it was the fact that she inspired him to become stronger. She always pushed him to be stronger, be better than he was. For this reason, he felt that if anything, she was the only one that had the greatest deal of respect and friendship for him. Because of this, her presence in his mind drove him to push himself further (in addition to her almost constant drill tactics during training).

Weird...

Sighing again, he took in the environment again in order to regain that sense of calm and serenity, Masataka closed his eyes for a brief moment and lifted his head, taking in all the life force around him. It was just like training; only he was still and motionless, thus allowing him to take in more. Much more than he anticipated as he detected a very distinct ki.

_'Maya...?'_

At that moment, his eyes opened and began to wander around in search. Maya was in the area somewhere; he could sense it. Chances are that she was training as well, preferring to train on her own as he did. Only she did so outside the dojo. That confused him somewhat. It was the dojo of the Natsume family. She shouldn't feel the need to leave it if she wanted to train privately. But then again, it was also the headquarters of the Juken club and thus alone time in there would be rare; he could attest to that. Still sensing the ki of his teacher, Masataka decided to track her down. It was night and although he wouldn't mean to disturb her, she didn't have to be alone at this time of night. Not that she couldn't take care of herself, mind you (she is the captain of the Juken Club for a reason), but he hadn't seen her as often as before.

_'Guess I miss her.'_

Without even stopping to reflect on what that thought might implicate, Masataka walked on, following Maya's ki. It seemed faint, so she must have been a distance away. Following the ki, Masataka trailed it toward a tree land area. It didn't look too deep, but he figured he would have to do a bit of trudging through the bushes.

He didn't count on doing it for five minutes straight...

_'Just how far does this go?'_

Pushing the 50th branch away from his face, Masataka continued through the brush and bramble of the trees and bushes, still tracking Maya's ki. As he forced through, he began to question on whether this was a good idea or not. If Maya went all the way out here just to train, then perhaps she didn't really want to be disturbed. He understood that if anyone needed some time to themselves, it would be Maya. At that point, he decided that he should simply turn and head home as he planned on before. And then as he turned, the full light of the moon broke through the trees just ahead of him.

And he found her...

In a wide glade within the forest, Maya was going about in her own training, executing her katas in smooth perfection. Masataka was completely stunned by her appearance as well as her movements. He was certain that he was seeing a dance. A graceful, flawless dance... The moon, just overhead, beamed down on her, causing her to literally glow as she danced around. And not just the moon, but Masataka literally saw her ki flowing out of her, swirling about like silk ribbons along with her silvery hair. Every move and form she made was simply divine, so much so that Masataka could not stop watching. It was as if his very soul was locked on to this sight, just like the time when he saw Aya for the first time.

Except...

He didn't know why, but this felt...different; much more than his encounter with Aya. Maybe it was because he had never seen Maya training on her own before in her true form or maybe it was because he was used to being around her that he never really thought of her in such a way. Which came as a surprise to him, as Maya was just as attractive and beautiful as her younger sister, if not more so. She didn't have the same pure aura as Aya, but that made her more real to him, more alive, more...

"Takayanagi?"

Masataka was so caught into his daze and revere that he didn't notice that Maya have ceased in her 'dance' and had turned toward him. Even without her ki flowing out of her, the moonlight still shone on her features as she made her way toward the young man. Her usual feral grin came up over her face as he came out of the trees.

"So you found my secret little area, eh?" She then teased. "Figured you'd try to peep on me one day."

Stilled stunned by the earlier display of ethereal beauty and caught off by her accusation, Masataka found himself stuttering for words. "I...I..."

At this, Maya gave him a strange glance, although her grin remained. It wasn't like Masataka to be out of it, at least not when Aya wasn't around. But the moment was brief on his part and Masataka managed to regain his composure enough to answer her properly.

"I sensed your ki and followed it. You must have been doing some serious training out here."

He half-expected to hear another teasing remark or something of the like from the young woman, but instead her grin softened into a genuine smile.

"I'm impressed."

"Huh?"

"Looks like your training is paying off." she answered. "Not even Aya can't even find me out here."

It was then that Masataka understood what she was talking about. All his extra training was sharpening his senses, making them strong enough to find Maya in this secluded area. But he wasn't really trying. It had just happened. In any case, Masataka decided to simply accept his teacher's commendation.

"I guess it is." A moment of silence passed between the two and Maya turned away, her eyes becoming downcast somewhat. "What is it?"

"Pretty soon, I won't have anything left to teach you." she breathed lightly. Masataka blinked at this, hearing the underlined sadness in her tone. It reminded him that once the tournament ended, Maya would have to leave Todou High, under the condition set on her by the school after their fierce battle with the Enforcement Group. It was a subject they, or she for that matter, didn't bring up, for obvious reasons. But they would still have the dojo to come to, where she could still teach them. But it just won't be the same. No longer would she watch their fights within the school. No longer will she be charge of the Juken Club.

No longer will she be seated upon his shoulder...

It was at that moment that Maya looked back at him, and upon seeing the solemn expression on his face, brightened her face into her usual mischievous grin.

"Hope that doesn't make you too nervous."

Looking back at her, Masataka couldn't help but smile back, seeing her attempt to lighten the mood with a joke. Despite everything that has happened, everything that is going to happen, she still managed to keep light-hearted about it, at least in appearance.

"No. Not at all."

"Good. Just don't let it go to your head." Her grin broadened. "Well, since you're here, might as well put you to use."

With that, Maya spun around and immediately shrunk down, retreating into her chibi form. Her clothes now covering her like a blanket, Maya pointed to a bundle a few trees away and Masataka moved over and grabbed it, opening it to reveal her smaller set of clothing. While she re-dressed, Masataka took her larger clothes and folded them up into the bundle in order to carry. Once the two of them were done, Masataka carried the bundle in his right hand while Maya hopped onto his left shoulder.

"Let's go."

"Sure, Captain."

As he turned around toward the trees, Maya spoke softly in his ear.

"Hey, if you don't mind, could you keep this a secret?"

Turning to her, he nodded to her, but kept his gaze on her when she saw a...change of some sort... in her eyes. Softer, but something deep. She seemed to want to say something else; something on her mind. But instead, the mysterious gaze vanished and she simply grinned as usual.

"Let's head back now."

With that, the two left to glade, leaving the beautiful image of the moon dancer in the mind of the young man.


End file.
